Still, back in early 1987, those performers weren’t locked in to play those roles and had to audition like everybody else. Take a look at this internal memo that The Daily Wh.at dug up that lists the contenders.

There’s several interesting things to note…

Picard: All of the candidates have ended up having long careers though obviously Stewart has had the most visible. Ryan ended up guesting as Riker’s father.

Riker: The spelling of the character’s last name is listed as “Ryker.” Is it a typo or did they change the spelling later? Supposedly Billy Campbell was also considered but he’s not listed in the memo. Frakes has recalled attending a cattle call.

Data: They seemed to be looking at various physical types for this role. Menyuk recurred on the series as Wesley’s friend, The Traveler. Hall is 7’2″ and played Harry on Harry and the Hendersons, among other roles. Interestingly, Spiner is not on the list.

Geordi: Hall was up for this role as well but got neither. (If he were helping to drive the ship, it might have been difficult seeing around him.) Russ would go on to a regular role on Star Trek: Voyager. Snipes had a big career in feature films in the 1990s and Gilyard became a regular on Andy Griffith’s Matlock.

Troi: Crosby was the only actress being considered for Troi but ended up playing Tasha (and leaving the show during the first season). No mention of Sirtis.

Tasha: Chao ended up as a recurring character on the series and then on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Keiko O’Brien. Leah Ayers played Marsha Brady a few years later on the short-lived Brady Bunch dramady, The Bradys.

I cannot picture Yaphet Kotto as Captain Picard but JD Roth would have made a better Wesley. I just never liked Wil Wheaton in that role. He was supposed to be in Star Trek: Nemesis (shot scenes and everything) and then they ended up on the cutting room floor. He blogged about it at the time.

Eric Menyuk is a nice guy and I can understand why they were going with height for Data in the beginning. Kevin Peter Hall – he was great, but how would they have explained Data dying three years before the end of the series?